News this week pertaining to Woman in Art and the argument of equality has been a debate for generations. Bonham’s have taken the stance to initiate and redress gender equality in the art world.

Gender equality is something that the UK continues to strive towards, but lack of opportunity for women is still a very real issue. A lack of senior female figures on the boards of UK business and industry greatly undermines our economy and makes for a perpetuation of male dominated patterns of behaviour in the professional world. However, gender roles are changing for both men and women in Britain and we must ensure equal opportunities for both sexes exist, more so than ever within the art market.

The highest price at auction for a work by the French sculptor Germaine Richier is £1.2m, compared with £91.6m for Alberto Giacometti, who studied alongside Richier. The difference in price driven by independent sales is astonishing and surely only speaks to the commonly held but unspoken perception that male generated art has more ‘value’ than that created by women.

Despite their treatment in the art world through history, women have been present and played an important role in art as artists and not just as the inspiration for the male gaze. The Bayeux Tapestry was designed and created by Nuns…

So as per usual George Thornton Art continues to ‘buck trends’ and we would like to salute our bank of Woman artists! We celebrate an almost 50% ratio of men to woman artists on our books. To strengthen arguments (in the case of our Nottingham Gallery) we are fortunate enough to represent the likes of Kate Brinkworth. An artist who continuously sells through auction houses in London. Even the larger publishing houses in the country don’t represent a young talent of this calibre! Jan Nelson, who in terms of number of pieces sold, was by far our most successful artist in 2015. And not forgetting Alicia Dubnyckyj whose works commands prices in London close to £10,000 a painting; and Katy Jade Dobson who can now boast of clients having to wait an incredible two years for original commissions to be completed. Finally the gallery’s two latest signing of 2016 ‘Louise McNaught’ and ‘Kirsty Mackay’ are both woman… no inequality here, just really great art!

You can view work by our celebrated body of females below and further compositions can be found on our website. www.georgethorntonart.com